July 11.

Hi! It has been a full day! I got up this morning

had breakfast and then got to the Abbey for morning

prayers.

Each day the community meets for prayer in the morning

and evening. There is no preaching! Except on

Sunday, but it is a time of directed prayer and

responses from a prayer book of the community. The

Abbey Bell rings 10 minutes before the service and

everyone who can comes to the Abbey for the service.

It lasted about 1/2 hour and then the community goes

about its work. I used the internet, here which is

free, thank goodness after it being so hard to find or

so expensive over the previous week. In the mid

morning I decided to do some exploring and walk about

the island and see what I could find. While it

measures 3.5 miles by one mile, it is still big. I

was warned not to head toward the mountains as there

are some bogs there that can be dangerous, so I

decided to go to the north shore beach for my morning

journey, it turned into nearly a whole day, as I just

arrived back here about 5 pm.

One hard and fast rule here is that you may go through

any gate as long as you close it behind you. No one

is to climb any fences, only use the gates. The

reason is that the cattle, sheep and goats graze

freely in vast fields and hills which are fenced in.

Anyone can walk about the island among the animals as

they graze. The only thing is that you have to watch

where you step!

I discovered that there are sheep everywhere. Some

cattle too, but mostly sheep. I headed toward the

northern end of the island and it is rugged and rough

in places, but there are sheep trails along the way,

and if they can go there, I figured I could too.

After making my way to northern beach with almost a

Carribean Setting of green water, white beach and

ragged rocks to the waters edge, I headed inland along

a fence row, and found that there were no gates to

cross, the fence row led right up the mountain face,

so I made another route across a large field and found

a gate securely fastened, so since I couldn't open it,

I climbed over it, which one is not supposed to do,

but it was so desolate, that no one saw me and I

figured by crossing fields I could return to the

hotel. I discovered the field I jumped into was a cow

pasture so watching the footwork was even more

important now! Finally, I found the main road and

knew where I was.

Dan.